Watch Nike’s most memorable Tiger Woods ads as their partnership ends

After nearly three decades, Tiger Woods’ partnership with Nike has come to an end, the champion golfer announced on Monday, bringing to a close one of the lengthiest and most lucrative brand deals in the history of the sport. “Over 27 years ago, I was fortunate to start a partnership with one of the most iconic brands in the world. The days since have been filled with so many amazing moments and memories, if I started naming them, I could go on forever,” Woods wrote in a statement posted to social media, adding that “there will certainly be another chapter,” without going into further details about future brand deals. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nike (@nike) “We are grateful to have been a part of it,” Nike said in a statement to Bloomberg News regarding Woods’ career. “We wish him the best in the future.” Woods landed the sponsorship with Nike ahead of his professional debut in 1996. Most recently he signed a 10-year deal worth a reported $200 million with the athleticwear company in 2013. Woods opted not to renew his Nike contract, his long-time agent, Mark Steinberg, told CNBC. Some had expected the partnership to end, citing the fact that Nike exited the golf equipment business in 2016, at which time Woods signed separate deals with Bridgestone and TaylorMade for golf balls and clubs, respectively. (In recent years, following a car crash-related leg injury, Woods has also been spotted swapping his Nike shoes for FootJoys. Woods returned to competitive golf last month following eight months of recovering from ankle surgery.) Nike stuck by Woods through ups and downs, including during his 2009 sex scandal that led other endorsers to back away, including Gatorade, AT&T and Accenture. Below, Ad Age has compiled some of Woods’ most iconic, influential and controversial moments with Nike from the past 27 years. “Hello World” (1996) Tiger Woods’ first Nike commercial from the mid-1990s remains one of his most iconic: “Hello World,” a 60-second spot from longtime Nike agency Wieden+Kennedy that runs through his accomplishments and milestones as a young golfer, such as winning the U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Championship at the age of 15. Despite such an impressive athletic résumé, the ad notes that, at the time, there were still courses in the U.S. that would have barred Woods from playing due to the color of his skin. (The ad’s title is borrowed from the now-iconic remark Woods, then just 20 years old, made upon his professional debut at the ’96 Greater Milwaukee Open: “I guess, hello world, huh?”) “I Am Tiger Woods” (1996) Despite first airing nearly three decades ago, “I Am Tiger Woods”—also from W+K—is another early ad with its fair share of staying power, depicting more than a dozen young actors, both on and off the screen, repeating the titular phrase, “I Am Tiger Woods.” The spot was so popular in its day that after Woods won the 1997 Masters Tournament, Nike resurrected the spot for a second run the year after its original launch. “Hacky Sack” (1999) No words are spoken in 1999’s “Hacky Sack,” but it is nevertheless perhaps one of the most well-known ads that Tiger Woods starred in for Nike. The 30-second commercial was born out of a W+K production team asking the golf superstar if he had any go-to tricks, and Woods, being the expert he is, didn’t disappoint, bouncing a golf ball on the head of his club hacky sack-style nearly 50 times before volleying it up and effortlessly driving it across the green. And remarkably, despite seeming like it might only be possible with some CGI magic, the shot isn’t altered. “It took [Woods] four takes, a grand total of 7 minutes,” Ad Age reported at the time. “Frank” (2003) This light-hearted spot doesn’t actually feature Tiger Woods at all, but it does feature his proxy, Frank: the golfer’s famous tiger-shaped headcover that has since become a bonafide character in his own right, shaped in part by former Wieden+Kennedy creative director Jim Riswold. In the commercial, former PGA Tour golfer David Duval and a crowd of friends are gathered in what appears to be Woods’ garage, where Frank tempts them to check out Nike’s then-new Ignite Driver. Duval obeys—only to shatter the window of a red SUV parked beside him when he pulls the club back for a practice swing. “Swing Portrait” (2006) Much like “Hacky Sack,” this ad—variably referred to as “Swing Portrait” or “Perfect Swing”—contains no words, only music. In this case, it’s a building orchestra, while the camera focuses on nothing but capturing Woods’ artful golf swing in slow motion. But while this might seem like a fairly simplistic ad, Golf Magazine wrote in 2020 that its clear depiction of Woods’ drive was revolutionary at the time and “changed the way we think about the golf swing,” with Luke Kerr-Dineen, who was then the magazine’s instruction editor, calling it “the best golf commercial ever, and something only a brand like Nike would dare attempt.” “The Good Life” (2008) Another humorous ad, this 60-second Nike spot was created following Woods’ temporary departure from the game in 2008 due to a torn ACL in his left knee, and imagines the top golfers of the 2000s living in a beautiful alternate reality—that is, a reality in which Woods isn’t around to consistently dominate the competition. Set to Lesley Gore’s upbeat “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows,” the commercial starts as a montage of sunk putts, trophy hoisting and champagne popping … only for the good times to come to an abrupt halt once Woods walks into the locker room. (Despite a torn ACL and two stress fractures, he would go on to win that year’s U.S. Open.) “Earl and Tiger” Nike famously declined to drop Woods as an endorser after his 2009 sex scandal, and its ads with him soon became controversial. This 2010 W+K spot, released as Woods rejoined the PGA Tour, featured a posthumous voiceover from Tiger’s father Earl, as Tiger stared blankly into the camera. Praised by some for its stark minimalism, it was blasted by others who felt Tiger didn’t show enough contrition and was using Earl’s words out of context. “Winning Takes Care of Everything” (2013) Arguably Nike’s most controversial ad with Tiger Woods, this campaign started life out as an innocuous one-off image posted on Nike Golf’s Facebook and Twitter (now X) accounts, timed to celebrate Woods’ recent win of the Arnold Palmer Invitational that returned him to his former No. 1 spot at the pinnacle of golf. But the ad’s copy—“Winning Takes Care of Everything,” and “Victory” written in smaller text beside a Nike swoosh—was criticized by some who found its message questionable and brazen, particularly at a time when Woods had just begun to repair his professional reputation following his sex scandal. “Tiger Woods: Same Dream” (2019) In 2019, following Tiger Woods’ triumphant win at that year’s Masters, W+K helped Nike mark the occasion with a custom video that built upon its existing “Crazy Dreams” campaign. The ad noted the supreme highs and lows Woods has experienced throughout his career and personal life, but closed on an uplifting note with a vintage clip of the golfer as a child saying, “I’m gonna beat Jack Nicklaus.” It was released on social media just moments after Woods’ victory in the tournament, which marked his first major title win in over a decade.

Watch Nike’s most memorable Tiger Woods ads as their partnership ends

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